A Bevy Of Birds

This print was the 8th in the Hokusai Reborn series, a collaboration project between Mokuhankan and the British Museum. The Museum holds a group of drawings by Hokusai that were apparently intended for a series of books. For reasons unknown, that project was cancelled, but the drawings survived. Twelve images were selected for a subscription series. Here is the link to the full collection of images held by the British Museum - [Link]

​

The images in the full set are divided into several themes, including aspects of Japanese historical culture, Buddhist deities, historical landscapes, warriors from ancient China, and scenes of the natural world. This particular image fits clearly into the encyclopedic nature of the set and depicts five birds: starting clockwise from the top left, we have a crow, crested ibis, cormorant, common snipe, and eastern egret.

Since the sketches Hokusai left were merely that—sketches—all the color blocks were created based on similar prints by Hokusai and the real-life birds.

​

Originally, I traced the design with the intention that my teacher would carve it, and he was very clear that he didn’t want me cleaning up or adjusting the lines when preparing the tracing. However, shortly after starting, he had some health concerns, and I took over the carving work on this print.